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View Full Version : A gamers nostalgia, 1st edition.



Exentenzed
03-30-2011, 05:37 PM
As the title suggest i will be going back to reminisce about some older titles out there that i have enjoyed alot and put a good many hours into playing.
This i will do at random intervalls, i was considering weekly but you never know when stuff might get in the way.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

For this first edition i will talk about a game that was very dear to me when i was a little younger,
It was one of those games where you didnt have to go eliminate everything in sight.

It was about restoring space stations to their former glory!

Its name?

http://www.rawgamer.com/img/games/pc/s/startopia/startopia.jpg

Whilst it's true that the opening movie parodies 2001: A Space Odyssey and therefore only actually works as humour if you've seen the film (which, at the time, I had not... meaning the jokes sailed over my head), Startopia is a game that rewards the open mind. The loading screen cheerfully depicts a green alien riding inside some kind of pod-like spacecraft, laden with suitcases and a cute 'GB' sticker, the kind used in Europe on the back of cars designating their country of origin.

The Opening Movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-FnOo9-iGA

Yup, Startopia, it was a title where you and your Virtual Artificial Intelligence, (VAL) would work "togheter" to restore old spacestations to working conditions be it for the benefit for a single alien race, a complex trade hub for multiple races, or maby even a site for spiritual healing and relaxation for traveling pilgrims?

Even though the game is played inside the space station you can still move the camera out into space from the reveered BioDeck to take a look around ^^
http://www.doubleyouteeeff.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/startopia2.jpg

A sad truth is that games such as Startopia, released in 2001 by Mucky Foot and published by Eidos, are so often brushed aside and forgotten within the gaming industry, a title that refuses to take itself seriously is always a rare and precious gem in a medium saturated with grimness and a constant desire to declare itself edgy and grown-up.

Startopia has no such ambitions to pedantically prove itself; perhaps because it knows, deep down, you're going to love it anyway.

The loading screen fades, and a single robotic spacecraft functioning as the game's main menu springs to life; the music, a kind of trippy electronica, beats into being as the arm extends to ask you to create a profile. Above the music, the voice rings out, "We are controlling transmission."

The game starts of simple giving you a mission, some crates and a segment within the station. A few of these Crates are Scuzzers, robots which build your facilities and maintains them and keeps all the litter away from the stre... Decks. The others contain a few starter buildings.

You also hire different type of aliens as you go along, to operate machinery and offer services to your visitors (no pun intended)

Here, a Siren is selling... Um... Love to a visiting alien.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLBN2mnwUPHnLcP5GU6ZKR-0MTQFLCJuhi_-FZkwawZoh49Qe1

At the beginning the only stuctures you have available are the ones provided with the crates and the mysterious merchant that from time to time visits you offering selective goods at unreasonable prices.
The currency in the game is energy (Which icon looks suspiciously similar to euros xD) Energy is as said your currency, but if you use it all up your station will also start to shut down because it acts as power aswell... Obviously.

To get access to more buildings you have to do some research. Doing this is actually very satisfying. You build a lab and hire some turakken, Which are aliens with 2 heads!
Then you can start doing some research, But doing so isnt done by just clicking some icon, no you have to find items to research and put it inside the lab on a specific inventory item called the Analyzer.
For example: You put litter on it, and it will eventually research the Litter Bin, Put a litter bin on it and it will research a lavatrine, and so on.
This gets expensive after a while since the more advanced the research becomes, the more expensive it will be to get the items to study.

Lab performing an Autopsy
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h271/Beatnuki/StartopiaAutopsy.png

Your station also comes with 3 decks. One is the Industrial deck. Where all machinery is handled, togheter with your Cargo bays and Docking ports.
Then you have the Entertainment deck, which, you know. yea you do.
At last we have the Bio deck, 2 alien races operate on this deck. one of which cultivates it so that you can harvest it later for different goods, and changes its land and weather (You can do this manually aswell.)

Bio Deck with some Memaus wandering about
http://images.wikia.com/egamia/images/e/e3/Startopia_screen004.jpg

Well, this is starting to get alot longer than i intended so im going to wrap it all up with a little gameplay movie and the reccomendation to get this game if you can find it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbYKKzmuVRU&feature=related

Muffincat
03-30-2011, 07:09 PM
http://images.wikia.com/egamia/images/e/e3/Startopia_screen004.jpg

I would like to play this now XD

But thanks for mentioning this... seems interesting o.o

Exentenzed
03-30-2011, 07:13 PM
How did i just KNOW you would comment on that picture? :)

Those are called Memaus and they are very cute, however, Beware them :lipsrsealed:

But yea, its great. Very underappriciated though. :|

paecmaker
03-31-2011, 03:15 AM
Do you know where to get it? Its seems very interesting.

Exentenzed
03-31-2011, 04:59 AM
Do you know where to get it? Its seems very interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/Startopia-Jewel-Case-Pc/dp/B00079MUXE/ref=dp_cp_ob_vg_title_0

http://www.terragame.com/downloadable/strategic/startopia/

http://www.shopping.com/Startopia/prices

Found these doing a quick google search for "Buy Startopia". Havent checked them out though so i dont know if they are legit or not. Im guessing Amazon is a pretty safe bet though. ^^ 20$ for downloadable copy and 30$ for a jewel case copy. (CD cases)